"Yayin," Cleos, the Crying Red Hat, watched the Purple Spider Web that enveloped the Azura night sky, as tears of the curse slipped from the corners of her eyes.
"Yayin," Anna, the Red Cicada Duchess, known as the main enemy of the early Funeral Ceremony from the Family Reunion Office, murmured absently.
"Yayin," the Clan Leader of the Six Emblems thought it might be time to consider the plan to have everyone change their surname to Senheiser.
Vatican Mura, Modora, Fidel, Mongfera... When the Gospel List was announced and the fireworks from the Spider Web burst forth, the entire Gospel chanted the same name in a low hum.
In the banquet hall of Nabistin Palace, the Empress stood up from the throne, unfolded her arms and calmly announced the alternation of status, "A new emperor has already been born; Yayin will be the future Echo, and the Yisu Dynasty will welcome a new Saint."
"How could this be..."
"Why him! How could it be him? It cannot be him! I will never acknowledge this!"
"We didn’t want something to happen!"
"The Weaving Festival is over, and so are we..."
When the Gospel List finally came to a close, many guests had a complete mental breakdown, especially the families of Mercury, Roland, and Kaiser, who had sent people to assassinate Ash and even had bounties still posted for him in the Gospel market!
Rather than being unable to accept that Ash was the future Saint of Yisu, they were unwilling to accept that they had inadvertently incurred a mortal vendetta with the highest ruler who would soon govern the Gospel!
If they had known the consequences and still done this, well, they’d have no one to blame but themselves. But just a minute ago, those obsessed with killing Ash were hailed as pillars of the Gospel, and a minute later, they’d unexpectedly become treacherous subjects guilty of king-slaying and rebellion!
One step from heaven to hell, such an overturning and unjust feeling would overwhelm anyone! At least with the stock market’s drop stop, there could be a halt, and leveraging could only result in losing one’s capital; but now, they had carelessly gambled away a family business that was hundreds of years old. Even the Holy Sanctuary Mages, plagued by Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon, collapsed in that instant.
As for whether offending Yayin might not end badly... well, in the last few centuries, indeed nobody had offended the First Gospel, since the Princess stayed in the Imperial Palace before her enthronement and became the emperor who wielded the Gospel afterward. It was only she who offended others; where was the chance for others to offend her?
However, it was possible to find an answer in history: those dynasties that had offended the First Gospel had now become history; those famous sites that had imprisoned the First Gospel had now become ruins; those who attempted rebellion against the First Gospel couldn’t even leave their deeds behind.
Their fear stemmed from the fact that they were different from ordinary people; these families and consortia standing at the peak of the ruling class could feel the absolute ruling power of the Yisu royal house most acutely. Since the Yisu royal house could press them down within their own cities, preventing them from starting vicious competitions, then they could absolutely crush them, causing their family to quickly disintegrate or even become extinct in a single day!
This was no baseless paranoia, but something the Yisu royal house had indeed done before!
About three hundred years ago, a family had a Legendary Mage who not only did not enter Nabistin but also arrogantly forced other families to submit by wielding military power, causing his influence to rapidly expand across many cities. All the important positions were held only by the most trusted blood relatives, and governance was further assisted through Contracts, looking as if they might break the "territorial restrictions" set by the Yisu royal house.
They even built a high-rise and invited major families over to establish prestige, attempting to establish their status as the ’second Gospel.’
Then, one night, that family suddenly perished. The reason was internal conflict. Because the Legendary Mage valued ’loyalty’ over ’competence,’ those who felt they were entitled due to their hard work had long been dissatisfied, and those who were favored naturally felt their position well-deserved.
During rapid expansion, bloodline recognition could indeed glue many practical conflicts over interests together, but when the scale of interest completely overweighed the bloodline on the balance, those conflicts would rebound with tenfold consequences.
The rebels seized the opportunity when the Legendary Mage logged into the Void Realm and, through a love plot, successfully induced the Mage’s daughter to assassinate the Legendary Mage. However, the ensuing civil war swept through all of the kin, with almost no survivors.
Even looking back on the clan extermination, no matter how one saw it, it seemed they brought about their own doom, with no visible effect of external factors. Yet, no one was naive enough to believe that the Yisu royal family hadn’t acted—let alone anything else, it was indeed possible for a Legendary Mage to be assassinated while logging into the Void Realm, but the vast majority of mages, even in their most secure places, would set up one or two measures to guard against interference from outsiders before entering the Void Realm.
Perhaps the Legendary Mage was simply careless that night, and had lazily entered the Void Realm without setting up any precautions. But his kind of ’carelessness’ was enough to send chills down the spines of those who came after.
Were families like Mercury really an unbreachable monolith?
To the eyes of the Yisu royal family, how much sturdier were the castles that each clan had been running for hundreds of years, compared to a child’s creations on a sandy beach?
The rebellious hearts of Qinna and Yvalin were not only thick with ambition but also stemmed from fear. In fact, these two were one and the same—when they realized the blade of Yisu was perpetually hanging over their heads, it gave rise to their discontent and yearning.
Therefore, people like Mercury couldn’t simply stand by and watch Ash ascend the throne—it didn’t matter whether Ash would seek revenge or not.
If Ash sought revenge, then they would die a gruesome death; if Ash didn’t, they would live in constant fear every day, suspecting any mishap as a signal of Ash’s interference, dying a slow and torturous death as if being cut by a blunt knife.
In the end, the pressure of the First Gospel was simply too immense, immense enough to crush their rational defenses, and unfortunately, they had no power to counter the First Gospel—no matter how powerful they were, could they really be stronger than the Elf Dynasty or the Firewood Dynasty?
More importantly, the Yisu royal family did not need these clans to help them rule. While these mage families had a certain level of advancement and had a critical impact on the development of technology and the improvement of production efficiency, the fact that the Yisu royal family had invited them to witness the succession of the throne represented their importance.
But they were only important, not indispensable.
Even if everyone here and their families behind them were wiped out, Yisu’s rule would still remain as solid as a rock, at most, it would only cause a stagnation in production that would take time to recover from.
It was correct for the Yisu royal family not to engage with the outside world, as no one could afford the cost of being despised by a princess, unless it was...
At that thought, people couldn’t help but glance at the protagonists who had caused a scene at the dinner earlier.
No wonder Senheiser and Belladett nearly tore the palace down, yet the Empress had no reaction at all!
No need to mention Qinna and Nona—the Gospel had already repeatedly declared their sovereignty on Ash’s behalf, showing just how much Ash would dote on them in the future; Yvalin, after being nullified in the Happiness List, turned to be Ash’s secret technique, acting like a loyal dog, as if totally dominated; and Anfeier was Igula’s wife, and Igula was the madman who was willing to overturn the entire Gospel just to resurrect Ash, plus Ash also highly appreciated Anfeier’s daughter, Reya—rounding up, Anfeier could be considered Ash’s half-sister from different parents.
As the consorts of the new emperor, what was breaking a palace to them?
"Clan Leader of Senheiser..."
"The respected Miss Belladett..."
"Guardian of the Emblem from Vatican Mura..."
As the guests made overtures towards these women, an irritated voice echoed through the hall.
"The Gospel has fooled us!"
Mercury’s eyes were blood-red, and he said through gritted teeth, "The criteria for the Gospel List clearly states ’only the most pure, innocent, kind, and splendid girls.’ How does Ash qualify to be listed!? How does he!?"